Wearable equipment dilemma: User demand and commercialization of "two thresholds"

More and more Internet companies are starting to enter the wearable hardware market.

July 23, Millet first intelligent hand ring released, officially cut into the increasingly hot wearable equipment market. Before, Qihoo 360 launched the children's intelligent hand ring, the main child safe distance positioning function; Alibaba has also been released to test the water can wear equipment news. Even the marriage site century Jiayuan is also about to launch its first generation of intelligent hand ring, positioning, voice transmission as the core function.

Before, Qihoo 360 launched the children's intelligent hand ring, the main child safe distance positioning function; Alibaba has also been released to test the water can wear equipment news. More and more Internet companies are starting to enter the wearable hardware market, and even the century Jiayuan is about to launch its first generation of intelligent hand ring, positioning, voice transmission as the core function.

At present, however, the market for wearable equipment continues to be the mainstay of the start-up company. The main health concept of Shiyun technology, positioning independent smart watch Shell Electronics will be released in September new products.

And from the domestic market for wearable equipment to see, roughly divided into three categories, watches, bracelets and rings and other small ornaments, functions more focused on positioning, communication reminders, ID certification, health management and sleep monitoring. Shell Electronic Smart Dress Department head Xu Peng, interviewed by the 21st century Economic report, said that although the market can wear a wide range of wearable equipment, but the lack of a killer application or feature large-scale activation of user needs.

Single function, weak user demand, difficult to form scale is currently wearable equipment market one of the biggest difficulties. Some of the wearable equipment brands interviewed by the 21st century economics reporter said that if Apple's iwatch and Microsoft's wearable equipment were introduced in the second half of the year, the domestic market would be able to be heavy.

In the lag of the industrial chain, there are so many companies to join the army of wearable equipment, behind the strategy is to seize the next flow of the entrance, which in the industry known as the relay TV, PC, mobile phone after the "four screen." But wearable devices are different from mobile phones, the lack of a strong demand, such as communication to solve the user "pain point", so users become wearable equipment, the first "ridge."

However, internet companies have joined the business model of wearable devices to explore more than just hardware. The back end builds the platform, by other means is more consistent with the Internet thinking. However, it will also become the second "hurdle" after users of wearable devices.

Portal Location Challenges

Shell Electronics released its first generation of smart watches last year and will release second-generation products this September. Xu Peng said that the second generation of products to solve a major problem is the backlight, the first generation of products similar to mobile phones, look at the table need to click to show the number, and the second generation of watches will be without backlight in the case can always display numbers.

He says the first thing users need to watch is to look at the time and then other features. In the current three types of wearable equipment forms, watches are considered the most intelligent products. However, there are still many problems in terms of user demand. Century Jia Edge Executive vice President Zhang Yahong example, by plane, if the smart watch built-in SIM card, must shut down, then how to see time? More importantly, the watch as a symbol of identity and taste, a high demand for watches, smart watch can not sacrifice this principle on the basis of "smart" to attract users is a brand must consider the issue.

According to Xu Peng, Shell Watch is currently equipped with an Android system, built-in sensors, can download a variety of applications, its Watch desktop has been set up in the shell market. The overall shape is similar to mobile phone, in order to achieve some simple positioning, health management, Jibu, social and other functions.

The smart watch forms and functions on the market are similar, but this continuation of smart phone mode, through the "Operating system + Application" architecture, in the user experience there are a lot of restrictions. All features are focused on a small screen, both input and visual experience will be affected. Xu Peng also admits that smart watches may only be suitable for use in tool classes, and that applications such as social networking and electrical business are relatively poorly experienced.

Based on the small screen problem, Zhang Yahong said, if the projection through anywhere, these problems are not difficult to solve, but the projection for the power and light requirements are high, the need for technical breakthroughs to achieve.

Communication is the current smart watch manufacturers for users to create another big demand, which is also the current smart watch one of the optional direction. But when the SIM card becomes an independent communication tool, this way back to the logic of the phone, the equivalent of the user added a cell phone, the resulting mobile phone number change cost issues need to be considered.

"The shell is positioned as an extension of a separate wrist watch, not a mobile phone," he said. "Xu Peng said. But as part of the device, and other devices such as mobile phones, it is clear that the wearable equipment manufacturers are another major genre. Samsung's Gear watch, millet smart bracelet, etc. are extended outside the mobile phone equipment, through the main equipment to drive wearable equipment users.

Millet ID Verification Instead of password lock, can be directly unlocked through the hand loop, but also joined the call to remind the function, Samsung Watch is synchronized with the mobile phone information, to achieve calls SMS reminders; Shell watches are now added to this feature. It is understood that this function is generally achieved through Bluetooth, beyond a certain distance will be invalidated.

The head of a wearable equipment brand said these requirements strictly speaking is not strong demand, if the main device can be simple to achieve certain functions, manufacturers add a hardware to achieve the same function, for users, is to increase the burden, "cool" but to increase the stickiness of the user is very small.

Zhang Yahong said that the breakthrough in wearable equipment in the vertical subdivision of the field, whether it is independent equipment or with the main equipment, whether to solve the needs of the user segments are key, such as children, the elderly, and even pets. Century Jia Yuan main love and marriage crowd and the concept of "transmission", through the lovers hand ring to achieve positioning, simple emotional information transmission, to precipitate users.

Recently, a name for "positioning Sugar" product starter, one-day sales reached 140,000. It is understood that the product positioning as the main function, not equipped with operating system, only GPS positioning. Users can hang the device on the pet, through the mobile phone client real-time monitoring of the pet activity trajectory and location. The design logic is similar to the children's intelligent hand ring of Qihoo 360, which tracks the children's trajectory in real time.

Realize the form, compared with millet, nutshell, Samsung's pure hardware Bluetooth connection mode, positioning sugar, Qihoo 360 is "Hardware + client" form through the Internet connection, remote data collection, transmission and display.

Multi-Commercial design

Shiyun Technology founder Wu Bing before the 21st century Economic report interview, said the hardware is only as a data entry, Shiyun technology, the ultimate goal is through data analysis to do health management.

A number of people interviewed by the 21st century economic reporter also said that wearable equipment business model will not only stay on the hardware, when the size of a certain user, through data analysis and application, realize the flow is the ultimate goal. This means that even if the front-end user needs problem is solved, the backend business model design is also critical.

Whether hardware + client or pure hardware mode, wearable brands are added to the cloud platform, where the data generated by user interaction on wearable devices will be introduced into the cloud, resulting in new business models through large data analysis.

Century Jia Edge CEO Wulin Light before the interview, said that the century Jia Yuan has been focused on matchmaking market, the user once the success of the loss from the platform, and through the smart hand ring, you can retain this part of the user, into the marriage market. It is understood that the century good margin design model, through the traditional matchmaking model to serve single users, and then through the smart hand loop tracking the successful user, access to relevant data, and then to achieve push such as wedding products, and thus through matchmaking, marriage and wedding of the entire industrial chain. As a result, century Jiayuan miss u Smart bracelet adds a screen so that information is displayed.

Shell Electronics is also not limited to only hardware, Xu Peng said, will rely on smart watches to form a platform to extend more services. But he did not disclose the specific business model.

Shiyun Technology is a start-up company focused on health data analysis. According to Wu Bing, Shiyun Science and technology to build a data model, through the analysis of human physical signs data, so as to give the results of analysis, and then provide to doctors and other professionals to make medical judgments.

He said that before the market related products, most of the single point of detection, lack of continuity. Wearable devices can provide a continuous sequential data collection channel. User's heart rate, heartbeat, blood pressure and other data through wearable equipment uploaded to the cloud, on the one hand can be synchronized to the user's app, on the one hand, on the Shiyun technology in the cloud platform.

Wu Bing said that this part of the data will enter the cloud technology data model, after data analysis, and health management agencies, enterprises, and even insurance companies to share data results. According to Shiyun Science and technology planning, Shiyun technology based on the analysis of the results of recommendations, but the final judgment will be the responsibility of professional health care personnel. Health authorities can provide health warning and prevention services to their clients, and insurance companies can adjust the premium standards through the data. From this, Shiyun technology to wearable equipment for the entrance, forming a complete industrial chain.

The man who has launched smart watches has begun to explore the other side. Turman Technology Vice President Lanxiao said that the watch is only the beginning of hardware products, behind the introduction of other hardware, watches collected on the data analysis and mining, can be applied to other intelligent hardware, such as smart home, through services and platform for profit, the specific model is still in exploration.

But there are also adhere to the hardware as the main profit model of the enterprise, 3DB hardware company focused on a mobile terminal and camera lens connected to the box to solve the general SLR camera in the night or the larger color of the scene under the picture of the problem. Its founder, Zhu Jizhi, says that for a hardware company, it is not tenable to make money from back-end data and services. He said, in marketing, branding and sales, must use the Internet, this is a combination of ideas with the Internet, rather than as the idea of Internet products to do hardware, today's smart hardware many functions can not be accurately achieved, it may not be done in ten years.

From the current market situation, the major wearable brands are in the early stage of the accumulation of users, the business model is still in the exploration. Zhang Yahong said that the current industry is not mature, talk about business model is premature.